Fact sheet on LTTE air raids

Colombo, April 27 (IANS) Sunday’s air strike by Tamil Tigers is the fifth such attack since March 2007: March 25, 2007: LTTE light wing planes bomb the Katunayake air force base close to Sri Lanka’s only international airport - the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA). Three airmen were killed and many wounded.

April 24: LTTE planes drop a couple of bombs on a military installation at Mayiliddy, in the Palaly military base in Jaffna peninsula, leaving six soldiers dead and damaging abandoned buildings in the vicinity.

April 29: When Sri Lanka and Australia played the cricket World Cup final in the West Indies, LTTE aircraft carried out pre-dawn raids on economic locations, causing extensive damage to a gas station and an oil station near Colombo.

Oct 22: LTTE suicide guerrillas carried out a commando-style attack on a Sri Lankan Air Force base in the northcentral district of Anuradhapura. LTTE planes used the occasion to bomb the base.

April 27, 2008: Two light aircraft of the LTTE bombed Sri Lankan military positions at Weli-Oya, 280 km northeast of Colombo.